Using as a starting point a 1911 ethnographic film by Swedish explorer Erland Nordenskiöld, a Bolivian filmmaker and a Guaraní guide travel together through the forests of southeastern Bolivia with the intention of making a film about the Guaraní people. Each man creates and interprets his own character, walking the thin line between documentary, fiction and performance. The journey not only takes them to the interior of the country but to their own inner selves, as they seek to define their identities within a country undergoing enormous social, political and historical change. Yvy Maraey is a quest to explore the colonial legacy in Bolivia and to recognize the epic history of an Indigenous nation.

An impressive achievement for Bolivian cinema, Yvy Maraey is a story as full of riches as Bolivia itself. Marc Ibarra, Film on Site

Juan Carlos Valdivia (b. 1962, Bolivia) is the founder of the production company Cinenómada in La Paz and is the most highly acclaimed Bolivian filmmaker of the last decade. His films include American Visa (2005) and Zona Sur (2009), which won the World Cinema Best Directing and Best Screenwriting awards at Sundance in 2010.